Methodists and Pride

             

One weekend I took a trip to Philadelphia with one of my friends. We were going to meet an old friend of mine and to sightsee. Never did I think that I would see an object on a church to use for this blog. While we were leaving the city we passed by a Methodist church. My eye always gets drawn to churches but especially United Methodist Churches because I like to compare it to my church. This church had something a little different about it near the top of the building. There was a pride flag attached to the church. Now I find this odd because even though the United Methodist church is progressive they do not allow their clergy to perform same sex marriages (or so last I heard at the last annual conference I attended) even though they are now legal in America. Some members of the United Methodist Church are furious because they stand on a doctrine of change and acceptance and have a motto of “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors”, meaning that all people can come to their church to find spiritual refuge. Many Methodist churches have reconciling committees where they plan big events for the communities they are a part of to bring insight to this troublesome contradiction.

This flag shows the support for a sensitive and polarizing subject in America today. To this congregation this is a “sacred” object. Yes a rainbow flag is profane in its inherently value but to this church and to the LGBTQ community the flag could be sacred because of what it stands for. It shows one of the values they hold in high regard. It does not show commercialization of a religion. It is simply holding their doctrine “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” up for the city of Philadelphia to see. This flag could distract or add something to the church. To progressive Christians it could add some extra love and devotion to the Methodist church. For the LGBTQ community it could add some faith and sense of belonging into their life. But to some non-­progressive Christians it could distract from the church they could feel uncomfortable at the church because of the progressive movement it is taking.

According to Emile Durkheim churches have a common collective conscience. A collective conscience is a sense of belonging and obligation to the group, which tends to make us have the same perspective when it comes to issues. It is probably safe to assume that the church as a whole supports same sex marriage so the flag is not distracting to the church.